karhu Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 I find this truly astounding: He said Barclaycard was "having to face up to the fact that clearly we are not making as much money out of customers that pay their bill in full as we are out of those that borrow", he said. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/4681228.stm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 I think everyone should vote with their feet! I will. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heresjohnny Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 I think on the quiet credit card companies are getting a little worried. They are starting to look at how they can offset increasing bad debts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Imp Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 I think Barclaycard are great. They spotted somebody making an unauthorised transaction on my card the morning it happenned, telephoned me and stopped all my interest payments until it was sorted so that I did not end up out of pocket in any way. I always pay my card off by direct debit anyway, so for the extra security and peace of mind they give me, I am more than happy with them bringing forward the repayment date. You get nearly 2 months anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizabeth Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 Well if my bank starts charging me I will cut the damn thing up. I only have it cause I like having two cards when I am travelling (in case 1 banking system breaks down as has happened and would not have been fun if I didn't have the second card). And I only spend ocassionally so that I can keep the card active. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 That's only slightly insane. I hope everyone who has a barclaycard complains ... Do they allow you to DD payments? My cc are all paid in full by direct debit at the specified dates - not that I spend a lot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
New Darker Law Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 This happened to me over the Christmas period. I was livid when I realised they had moved one of my dates forward (I have a Mastercard and Visa with them). I paid on my usual date and waited until the following month to see what they would say. I was expecting to incur a late payment fee, but was surprised they only charged a small interest charge. I was going to leave it, but having read this article I think I'll complain. BTW if you do incur a late payment charge and run a good account in that you pay it off every month on time, you can usually talk them into rescinding the charge and interest. I have done this succesfully in the past. Barclaycard aren't too bad in my experience, like every financial institution, you need to show them who's boss now and again. NDL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePiltdownMan Posted February 4, 2006 Share Posted February 4, 2006 BTW if you do incur a late payment charge and run a good account in that you pay it off every month on time, you can usually talk them into rescinding the charge and interest. I have done this succesfully in the past. There is some question about the enforcement of late payment fees in English law anyway. A contract should not penalise someone for more than the cost of the damage incurred. It was in the news recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nem Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 I'm totally sick to death of Barclays ripping their UK customers off, with stupidly high interest rates on small loans to the total lack of compassion when it comes to dealing with issues. Thankfully, when I paid of my credit card bill completely a few months ago I had the ballz to tell em to shove it, when they tried to up my credit limit. I think the best bet it to cut the card up, especially now I don't owe these legal leeches a penny!! Another UK company giving jobs to India too, it a friggin joke. Burn in hell (if there was such a place) Barclays Maybe quitting smoking and having a couple of vodka's aren't making my post anymore constructive, ah well... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnd Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 I've now got a DD setup against my CC ever since I was charged interest one month I'd miscalculated - I explained and they refunded me - never again They are not making a penny out of me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbga9pgf Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 I've now got a DD setup against my CC ever since I was charged interest one month I'd miscalculated - I explained and they refunded me - never again They are not making a penny out of me... Well, I literally told the girl on the phone I had my credit card in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other, and wanted my APR renegotiating (not that it matters, I pay it off each month anyway). got a change from 20.9% to 10.9% when they "reviewed" my credit file and I mentioned I was getting married in a few months. The fact that I had the wedding saved for didnt enter my mind.... Bless em.. If they did this to me, Id get straight to watchdog, or ring them up, and tell them they had the option of forgoing the charge, or card gets cut up. They still make money on each of your purchases remember. Thats why you get charged extra for Visa when you fly easyjet. They are betting that most people that pay off the bill are well to do and thus say, ahh, only 20 quid. What they dont realise is that most of the people off the bill are stinging misers like me that hate so see big corporations get a profit. I like to rape em for their card protection, then pay off my bill every month... Its kinda satisfying, especially when you use your card in some of the less reputable parts of the globe..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnd Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 (edited) What gets me is people who pay for retail goods/services with cash/debit card The prices are already discounted to include the CC pecentage - so you may as well use it Edited February 5, 2006 by dnd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Blek Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 What gets me is people who pay for retail goods/services with cash/debit cardThe prices are already discounted to include the CC pecentage - so you may as well use it Only if you pay in full at the end of each month. I'll bet that most don't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golden Shower Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Barclays is one bank that I will never do business with again. If you've ever called their customer support, you would be quite happy to see the f*ckers offshored! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DEATH Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 What gets me is people who pay for retail goods/services with cash/debit card The prices are already discounted to include the CC pecentage - so you may as well use it The charge for processing a Switch/Solo/Maestro and Visa Delta/Electron is usually smaller than a credit card. It all depends on the transaction size. Currently it is something between 22p - 25p per transaction for the debit cards, they are not charged as a % of the balance like credit cards. (Proper merchant accounts that is, i.e. not paypal, worldpay etc.) There was a lot of moaning from the retailers about 20 years ago when they brought out the Barclays Connect debit card and tried to force retailers to pay the usual % fee. I think this is why the debit cards now have a seperate fee structure today. So you are doing the retailer a favour using the debit card if the transaction is around £10 or more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Time to raise the rents. Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 A trick Barclaycard have been doing for years: You set up a direct debit to pay the minimum payment each month, so you can never miss the minimum. You get a statement saying balance 1000, minimum 30 or whatever. The statement explicitly says "We will take the minimum payment by direct debit on X date". So you calculate that to avoid any interest charge, you should pay 970 and the balance of 30 will be covered by the direct debit, so payment made in full. However, the trick from them is that you pay the 970 & their system cancels the direct debit, because you've already paid the minimum, so no direct debit required . So you fail to notice the 30 no going through your account & the next bill arrives. You have an interest charge on the bill of about £35 because you didn't pay the full balance & when that happens, the interest is charged on the outstanding amount for the entire time it was outstanding, so you missed out completely on the 55 days interest free. This happened to me 2 or 3 times in my confusion between which cards do & don't practise this. But an angry phone call each time got the interest charge removed, but I bet tons of customers pay the interest charge & Barclaycard makes a killing out of the scam. My point to them when I phoned them each time, the statement says "we will collect the direct debit". It doesn't say we might, or we will if you don't take care of the minimum first. I obviously suggested they should change the wording on the statement to reflect their policy, I bet they laughed their heads off when the conversation was over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elizabeth Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 (edited) What gets me is people who pay for retail goods/services with cash/debit card The prices are already discounted to include the CC pecentage - so you may as well use it The price is already INFLATED to include the CC percentage. But this is a marginal cost per unit where the CC is used, but it is forecasting as an overall cost of credit card use and then absorbed evenly into the individual unit cost per item. This is why for many years supermarkets would not take a credit card. They had not added it to their calculations. Hence, contrary to your post, if less people used credit cards their would be less projection of costs to be absorbed and hence prices would go down over time. If you only think in the moment you are right, but I like to think in the overall or things never change. Anyway, since the charge has already been added, for small retailers I am very happy for them to get a little bonus rather than the bank get another ripoff charge. Edited February 5, 2006 by Elizabeth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
88Crash Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 (edited) I think Barclaycard are great. They spotted somebody making an unauthorised transaction on my card the morning it happenned, telephoned me and stopped all my interest payments until it was sorted so that I did not end up out of pocket in any way. I always pay my card off by direct debit anyway, so for the extra security and peace of mind they give me, I am more than happy with them bringing forward the repayment date. You get nearly 2 months anyway. The large credit card companies do have far better systems (the economy of scales enables them to do this) My wife and I had 3 cards stolen last year from out hotel room They didn't even attempt to use the baclaycard or Nat West (which had big credit limits) the other card was an 'internet bank' card and they obviously knew what they were doing Within one hour they had run up 6K via 3 large transactions in a department store (with inside help) They knew full well that the same tactics would not have worked with the other 2 cards Eventualy it was put down to fraud and I wasn't held liable, but it tok some time to get it sorted With the new PIN system, it is even harder to prove fraud My advice is use a major card for big credit limits and if you use a smaller credit card company keep to a low limit, that way you can't get hit for a big loss Edited February 5, 2006 by 88Crash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casual Observer Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 That's only slightly insane. I hope everyone who has a barclaycard complains ... Do they allow you to DD payments? My cc are all paid in full by direct debit at the specified dates - not that I spend a lot Mine too - Halifax? I think it's the only cc that allows this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimD Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 If I were Barclays I'd be more worried about those that can't pay their credit card rather than those that can? Cheers, Tim. P.S. They still make a percentage on every transaction carried out with the credit card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil D Possitt Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Mine too - Halifax? I think it's the only cc that allows this. First Direct allow automatic full payment DDs on their credit cards too, & so do Morgan Stanley. To be honest, I think most will if you ask them, they don't advertise the fact because they don't really want people to pay in full. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
libitina Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 I wouldn't touch Barclays with a barge pole. When I first started 'work' (YTS), I opened an account with them. Because there were only very small amounts going in and out, they obviously decided it wasn't profitable for them or something. They closed my account and tried to charge me £25 - more than a weeks 'wage' for me- for the privelage. Appalling customer service, ended up taking my Dad with me to sort them out! With First Direct now for main account. Lovely people Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neil D Possitt Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 With First Direct now for main account. Lovely people My main accounts are with First Direct too & I've found them to be really good. I used to be with Barclays, but got fed up when they made continual cockups with a simple standing order, plus every time I went into the branch they tried to sell me something I didn't want. (Usually a Barclaycard or a personal loan). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Always arrange payment in full, in advance on-line. Air miles can also come in handy, and Nationwide, best and cheapest way to use a card overseas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Blek Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 (edited) Last weekend I spent cutting up the majority of my credit cards. Each time I phoned the repective card company I was offered 0% on purchases and tranfers for 3 - 6 months with no % taken for a transfer. American express were kind enough to refund the last two years payment of £40 on my charge and credit cards. So I spent them this week and have just cancelled them now I must have been ******ing stupid to pay £40 each year for the privledge of having the card. Kept two for when I go on holiday. Edited February 5, 2006 by Mr Blek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.